Chapter 128 Unexpected Events
"Ring ring ring ring!"
At three in the morning, Hagiwara was woken up by an urgent call. He rubbed his eyes and jumped out of bed.
As a member of the night shift, I inevitably have to carry out missions late at night. When colleagues on night duty encounter difficult problems or emergencies, others will also be recalled to their posts.
"What's going on in the middle of the night?" Hagiwara muttered as he quickly put on his clothes and shoes. What bothered him was that his superiors had ordered them to assemble at the Metropolitan Police Department instead of heading directly to the crime scene as usual, and they hadn't given any explanation for this late-night mobilization, only demanding that they "get to their posts as soon as possible."
"Could it be a mission from out of town?" This was the only possibility Hagiwara could think of. If so, it meant that the local police force was insufficient to handle the matter.
"Looks like something big has happened, Jinpei-chan." As soon as Hagiwara stepped out, he saw his childhood friend from next door also coming out with messy, unkempt curly hair. "You really don't care about your appearance!"
"Stop dawdling, let's go. What's the big deal about your hair!"
"I'll drive you, you should get your hair fixed. People who don't know better will think you're a refugee from famine," Hagiwara teased.
Tokyo at 3 a.m. has lost its daytime vibrancy.
The city was still fast asleep, and a black Mazda sped away through the empty, quiet streets under the starlight.
The air was filled with the fragrance of flowers; if a passerby with hay fever were to hear it, they would probably sneeze for a long time.
"Boss, what happened?" Matsuda asked impatiently as soon as he arrived at the Metropolitan Police Department.
"Please be patient, I'm still waiting for instructions from my superiors."
"Then why did you wake us up in the middle of the night in such a hurry? It's such a hassle!"
"This is an order from higher up, and I can't disobey it. You all just stay here and wait. I'll let you know immediately if there's any action."
"Looks like you don't know anything either? Tsk tsk, the command is in complete chaos, something terrible must have happened!" Hagiwara asked curiously, trying to find out more.
"Hagiwara, stop gossiping and talking nonsense here. The situation on the front lines is complex, and we cannot act rashly before we have a full grasp of the intelligence."
"The front lines?" Hagiwara's eyes widened. "Who are we going to fight?"
"Ahem... In short, you all stay where you are and wait for orders."
"yes!"
"Hagiwara-senpai, what happened?" asked a newcomer with little work experience. He was extremely nervous as this was the first time he had received such a notification.
"Muto, relax! This is just an exercise to test your emergency response capabilities. There's nothing to worry about!" Hagiwara patted the newcomer on the shoulder to comfort him.
Muto breathed a sigh of relief, his smile widening: "That's good! You have no idea how worried I was on the way here. I thought we were going to Fukushima!"
"Why are you going to Fukushima? Has something happened there?"
"I heard the nuclear power plant shut down," Muto answered honestly. "Actually, today—no, I should say last night—I was playing games with a friend. He suddenly logged off while we were playing, around midnight. A little while later, he told me there was an accident at the nuclear power plant, apparently an explosion."
Muto naively thought this matter had nothing to do with them, but what he said in jest was taken seriously by Hagiwara. Hagiwara silently analyzed the current situation and realized that Muto's earlier concerns were not unfounded.
"But if an explosion has already occurred, then there's nothing we can do. Or are there still bombs?"
"No, this is a nuclear power plant. Regardless of how the perpetrator did it, how could an ordinary bomb have that kind of power?"
"If it wasn't caused by an explosion in the conventional sense, why are the higher-ups being so vague?"
"Jinpei-chan, what do you think?" Hagiwara pulled Matsuda aside and whispered.
"I don't think it's a problem with the nuclear power plant if it really stops operating. Maybe it's a problem with the nuclear reactor? Perhaps the power supply lines have been damaged?"
“That’s what I thought too, but something just doesn’t feel right. This can’t be that simple. Look, more than three hours have passed, and the higher-ups still haven’t finalized a plan. Isn’t that strange?”
"Or perhaps they are unaware of the situation and are afraid of causing an even bigger mess."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"The Fukushima nuclear power plant has a total of 6 reactors. If it really was a reactor explosion, how many do you think were destroyed?"
"Hey, Jinpei-chan, don't joke around like this!"
"They all exploded?!" Muto exclaimed in surprise, which sent a shiver down Hagiwara's spine.
"Muto, what? Everything's exploded?"
"The oil drilling rig, according to the news, has caused quite a few casualties and also resulted in an oil spill."
"Where is it?" everyone asked anxiously.
"Gulf of Mexico".
"Phew..." Hagiwara breathed a sigh of relief: I was so scared, I thought all six reactors had exploded.
"Hagiwara-senpai, are we going to stay here until work tomorrow?" Muto asked eagerly.
"If you're sleepy, you can find a place to take a nap."
"I'm not sleepy, and I can't fall asleep..."
Hagiwara noticed something was off about Muto's expression and asked with concern, "Muto, is something on your mind?"
"That friend I was talking about earlier said he felt nauseous, vomited, and was dizzy."
"You have an upset stomach? Go to the hospital!"
"No, no, I... I'm worried about nuclear radiation."
These words were like a wake-up call, and Hagiwara broke out in a cold sweat. These were indeed the typical symptoms of radiation exposure; more severe cases could involve hair loss, skin ulcers, bleeding, and even increase the risk of cancer and birth defects.
Does your friend live very close to the nuclear power plant?
"It's not exactly close, it's several tens of kilometers apart!"
Hagiwara's heart sank; he knew something was wrong. If radiation affected people at such a distance, it meant the radiation levels were already high.
This also confirms the worst-case scenario: the reactor did indeed explode. Only under such circumstances could a serious nuclear leak occur.
As is well known, the most important structure of a nuclear reactor is the reactor core. This heart, composed of nuclear fuel and control rods, beats ceaselessly, powered by nuclear fission. The nuclear fuel provides the energy, while the control rods regulate and control the rate of this heartbeat. When control rods are inserted into the core, the nuclear fission reaction slows down. Conversely, when they are removed, the reaction intensifies.
So here's the question: how exactly did the reactor core, encased in a sealed, high-temperature, high-pressure, and radiation-resistant copper-walled structure, explode?
"Senior Hagiwara, do you think we should stock up on some iodine tablets or something?"
"Hmm? No need! Fukushima is more than 200 kilometers away from Tokyo, it won't affect us."
"But it's said that the radiation levels measured at Fukushima Airport are 2,500 times higher than normal! We'll probably be affected to some extent here too, right?"
"Where did you get this information from?"
"It's written in the news, and now it's spreading like wildfire along with all sorts of rumors."
Hagiwara frowned as he looked at the report and walked straight into his superior's office.
"Hagiwara, I've already said it. Stay put and wait for orders!"
Hagiwara passed the news to his superior: "Is this what we have?"
Matsuo glanced at the headline of the report, his expression turning grim. It read: "Watching from Across the River: A Direct Report on the Pacific Rim Explosion!"
After a cursory reading, the journalist who wrote the article clearly used their imagination to connect the Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion and the Gulf of Mexico oil well explosion, suggesting that this would be a catastrophic disaster for marine ecological civilization. Finally, the journalist went to great lengths for sarcasm, writing in a compassionate tone: "Clearly, this will be a global catastrophe. Unfortunately, governments are currently unable to protect even their own citizens, so who will apologize for the dying Japanese eels and sea turtles?"
Matsuo feigned composure and said, "Hmph, where did this fake news come from? They're just spreading rumors!"
“This was reported by the BBC.” Hagiwara shrugged. “Their reporters also went to Fukushima Airport to test the radiation equivalent, and the results were more than two thousand times higher than the normal value.”
"That's utter nonsense!"
"This result is certainly inaccurate. If they used a more sophisticated instrument, they might find an even higher result."
How did you know?
"Because that value is the upper limit of the measuring instrument, which means it has exceeded the limit!"
The air suddenly fell silent. Matsuo stared at the other man speechlessly: "Hagiwara, don't take it out on me. I have more intelligence from the front lines than you do. Besides, isn't it a good thing that we don't have any missions right now? Do you want to go to that godforsaken place? Who knows what Fukushima has become! It's best to stay here and not get involved with us."
Hagiwara nodded, acknowledging that his boss was right.
Deep down, he was terrified of nuclear explosions. And he knew that many people shared his fear of nuclear weapons.
And so, the entire explosives squad, who had assembled at around 3 a.m., waited anxiously for more than three hours.
Until dawn broke and breakfast was served, the only order they received was "Stay put."
"I really don't know which boss came up with this idea on a whim. What's the point of waking us up in the middle of the night?" Hagiwara heard a colleague complain.
"Hey, stop complaining! It's alright, isn't it? We've already eaten!" Hagiwara comforted him.
"I really want to eat eggs. It feels like it's been ages since I've had any," Muto muttered to himself.
"Recently, there has been a significant decrease in egg production due to bird flu. Things will be fine once this period passes!"
For some reason, after saying this, Hagiwara felt a sense of desolation, as if "when it rains, it pours." Everyone fell silent and ate their breakfast, which contained no eggs.
Just after finishing his meal, Matsuo walked out of his office with a serious expression. Everyone's hearts tightened. He cleared his throat and said, "I think everyone has heard about what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Four out of the six reactors exploded."
Under the astonished gazes of his subordinates, Matsuo forced himself to continue, "Our primary concern now is why the other two didn't explode?"
"Should they explode?" Matsuda asked.
"According to the analysis of frontline experts, the control rods of all six reactors were manipulated by the same prisoner. They have confirmed on-site that unidentified devices were installed on the cores of reactors 5 and 6, but their specific purpose cannot be determined. They speculate that these are most likely the devices that could have caused the reactor explosions, but the switches were not triggered due to malfunction or other reasons. Therefore, in order to prevent secondary damage, we need to send people into the reactors to eliminate the threat."
"Is it possible that the other two didn't explode because they were time bombs and the time hadn't been set yet?" Matsuda asked again.
Matsuo sighed: "The experts on site debated this for a long time, but finally reached a consensus: in previous cases, time bombs usually had a conspicuous countdown sign, but this time there was none. Moreover, so much time has passed without any activity, so it doesn't make sense to detonate four bombs first and then two. Therefore, the possibility of a malfunction is very high."
"But what if the perpetrator just doesn't follow the usual path? After all, in previous cases, no one has ever blown up four nuclear power plants in one fell swoop!"
Matsuda wanted to argue with his superiors, but Muto weakly interrupted, "Um... is the reactor safe?"
“We will do everything we can to ensure everyone’s safety.” Matsuo hesitated for a moment. “However, this mission is extremely risky. So I will not force you to participate; it is voluntary.”
"Is this what they call recruiting a suicide squad?"
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